Everything has pretty much moved online, making the computer that you’re using to conduct your daily business, connect with friends and family, and keep up to date with what’s going on in the world, the most important device in your home.

Take it from someone whose work life exists online even when there isn’t a pandemic: if you’re going to invest in a device that makes your life easier and keeps you on top of your game, it’s worth looking at an Apple MacBook.

The latest MacBook Pro 13 inch has now arrived in South Africa, and it’s raking in rave reviews.

At first glance, you might not notice the difference between the new MacBook Pro and its immediate predecessor.

This isn’t surprising. The sleek design and light feel of the MacBook was already a crowd-pleaser.

Upon closer inspection, however, there are some key differences, not least of which the new ‘Magic Keyboard’.

More than anything else, the new Magic Keyboard is what makes the latest MacBook such a winner. Yes, it solves a problem largely of Apple’s own making, but the end result is highly satisfying.

The problem referred to here was the ‘Butterly Keyboard’ which some people weren’t too pleased with. My MacBook Air uses this technology and I’ve never had an issue with it.

Whatever your experience with the old keyboard, The Verge reckons that “the new Magic Keyboard will be reliable long term” and “provides a much nicer (and quieter!) typing experience” mostly because it offers 1 millimetre of key travel. A rubber dome under each keycap preserves more energy and a scissor mechanism locked into the keycap which reduces wobble and increases stability.

The MacBook Pro 13″ is also more powerful than its predecessor with 10th generation quad-core processors, up 80% faster graphics performance, up to 32GB of memory, and 4TB of storage.

You can really push this one to the limit, and still get results:

If your “pro” work is pushing your computer with lots of running apps and even more browser tabs, I’m happy to say that the computer kept up with most of what I threw at it. At one point last week, I had Chrome and Safari open with 10 or so tabs each, plus a couple of Electron apps, Lightroom CC, Zoom, and QuickTime. On top of that, one of those tabs was running a videoconference over WebRTC, and I was recording audio via Audio Hijack and using Bluetooth headphones.

One of the best things about using a more powerful computer is you are free to be a little more thoughtless about what you leave open and running in the background. I didn’t have to worry about quitting apps when I wanted to open new ones…

Great, I’ll get back to all of those browser tabs that I’ve had open for days when the time is right.

If you’re interested in buying one of these beauties, pricing starts from R27 699 through Digicape, with the 512gb option going for R31 999.

Not only are they South Africa’s largest independent Apple retailer, they also offer a Digicape Protection Package for MacBook Pro 13″. The plan extends the Apple warranty benefit of one year by another two years, giving you peace of mind for longer.

If you have some older Apple goods lying around and you want to score discounts, Digicape will also accept up to five of your old devices as a trade-in against the purchase of any new product.